Midterm 1 Exam
The exam will be from 8-10:10 PM Thursday, February 8.
Please arrive by 8:00 PM. We will start promptly at 8:10 PM.
The midterm exam will be held at many locations across campus. We will email your room and seating assignment for the exam to your CalCentral email address Wednesday night before the exam. If you arrive late or go to the wrong room, you will not be given additional time.
If you do not receive your seating assignment by Thursday morning, please make a private post on Piazza to let us know.
Materials
You do not need to bring anything except for a writing utensil and UC Berkeley student ID. The exam is closed book, closed notes, closed computer, and closed calculator. You may not use any electronic devices.
You are, however, allowed to bring one sheet of notes (front and back) that you create yourself. This sheet must be handwritten and you may not share it with anyone else. The purpose of these restrictions is to provide an additional opportunity for you to practice since many students have remarked that the process of compiling a note sheet helped them greatly when studying for the exam.
The Midterm 1 Study Guide will also be provided along with the exam. Familiarize yourself with the study guide so you know where to find information and how to apply each rule during the exam.
Scratch paper will be provided but we will not grade your scratch work. You will write your answers on the exam itself.
Topics Covered
The exam will cover all course topics through Chapter 1.7 of Composing Programs, except for Newton's method (1.6.5) and decorators (1.6.9).
Particular emphasis will be given to user-defined functions, assignment, iteration, higher-order functions, and environment diagrams. (The most challenging recursion questions in the course don't appear until Midterm 2.)
Preparation
The best way to study for the midterm is to work through practice problems. The course staff has put together the following resources.
- Resources page for past exams, midterm 1 resources, advice and tailored resources.
- Studying Guide for learning strategies and problem-solving tips
- Python Tutor for drawing environment diagrams
Office hours are a great way to get drop-in help from the course staff
Past Exams
See resources page for past exams, solutions, and video walkthroughs.
Lab and Discussion
Lab 3 will be held as usual and covers recursion. There will be no lab check-off next week so you do not need to attend in person, but we highly recommend completing the lab before the midterm as it contains exam review material.
There will be no discussion next week. Some TAs may host optional review sessions during their regular section times. They will send an email to you if they plan on organizing a review activity during their regular discussion section time.
HKN Midterm 1 Review Session
7-10 PM Saturday, February 3 in HP Auditorium
The format will be slides reviewing the concepts, followed by example questions. See https://piazza.com/class/jc559y99w0i4jj?cid=409
CSM Midterm 1 Review Session
5-7 PM Saturday, February 3 in A1 Hearst Annex
See https://piazza.com/class/jc559y99w0i4jj?cid=416The format will be slides reviewing the concepts, followed by example questions. We will be going over the following topics, in this order:
- What Would Python Display?
- Environment Diagrams
- Higher-Order Functions
- Recursion
- Tree Recursion
Seating Request
If you have a seating request, fill out this form by Sunday @ 11:59 PM.
Alternates
If you have DSP accommodations, you should have already received an email. We will send a confirmation email on Wednesday with room assignments.
If you have any other conflicts, please email cs61a@berkeley.edu. As stated in the policies we will not be giving alternate exams for any other reason, but if you have a valid excuse, we will excuse you from the exam and use only your Midterm 2 and Final Exam scores to give you a final course grade.